


The Guardian of the Northern Gate and The Demon

by TerribleTerribleOrbs



Series: In Which The Owl Tempted [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angel Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale is Stolas, Crowley goes by Anthony, Cus "Crowley" Isn't a very angelic name if you ask me, Cus I like the idea of him being an owl demon, Demon Aziraphale (Good Omens), Holy Water, M/M, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 12:39:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19887973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerribleTerribleOrbs/pseuds/TerribleTerribleOrbs
Summary: Adam and Eve have just been Tempted, but not by the Serpent. The Guardian of the Eastern Gate isn't anyone important, really, but the Guardian of the Northern Gate is. Stolas the demon wishes he could remember old name--Assirifel? He'll get it someday--and the angel Anthony is just as charitable as an angel should be, thank you very much.Or - ReverseVerse, basically.





	The Guardian of the Northern Gate and The Demon

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something in a reverse world, but I'm not really one for long fics, so here's a snippet of this universe! Maybe it'll be a series, dunno yet. Anyway, I really didn't know how to handle Aziraphale's name, so I just gave him another demon's title and animal form. He seems kind of owlish anyway, yeah?

There are four entrances to the Garden of Eden, appropriately titled the Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Gates. Each Gate has a guardian, one of which is going to be in some very hot water, very soon. He is the guardian of the Western Gate, who let a rather beautiful giant owl into the Garden. But he’s not too important to the story--nor are the guardians of the 

Eastern or Southern Gates. No--the one we’ll be focusing on is the Guardian of the Northern Gate, who is currently standing on a very high brick wall and watching as two humans--you know the ones--stumble outside into the hot sand. A rather large, rather beautiful owl flies up to stand beside him. Between that moment and the next, the owl is a man-shaped demon, wearing an inappropriately light robe. 

“I didn’t quite mean for that to go the way it did.” Murmurs the demon, who’s new name Stolas, though he would rather prefer to use the title he had before the fall*. “They just told me to come up here and ‘make some trouble’. I didn’t mean for this, really.”

_ *If only he could remember what his old name was. Azeerafel? Assrifale? He’ll get it one of these days. _

“What did you expect?” Says the angel, who’s name is Anthony. 

“I just thought she ought to know they’re naked.” The demon replies, shaking his head. “Didn’t know they’d be thrown from their home for receiving a bit of knowledge.” He adds, a little annoyed.

“Nothing wrong with knowledge,” Says the angel. “As long as  _ we’re _ the ones who have it. ‘Least, that’s what I’ve been told. Suppose that’s how God wants it to be.” He shrugs. It’s not his job to figure out the Great Plan, or whatever they’re calling it Upstairs. They’re both silent for a few moments.

“It was rather unfair, anyway.” Says Stolas, who is now wondering if he’s allowed to get his name changed to something that fits a little better.

“What?”

“Putting a giant, eye-catching, stunning tree in the middle of The Garden, filled with lovely looking fruit, and telling them that’s the one thing they can’t touch.”

“It was a Test.”

“Well, they should have been given the answer key from the beginning.” The demon sniffs. The angel doesn’t respond, choosing instead to study the oddly dark clouds in the sky.

“I wasn’t going to mention it,” the demon starts, after a couple of minutes, “but where’s your robe?” The angel ignores him very deliberately and tries to pretend that he’s not very nearly naked*.

_ *Not out of any sort of human shyness--angels and demons are sexless, mind you--but more out of embarrassment for why he’s in this position in the first place. _

“I mean, I assume they aren’t sending their soldiers down with a scrap of wrap to call clothes? The fellow who let me in--nice angel, by the way--had all sorts of layered robes and the like. I thought you all did.” The demon is more talking to himself by the end than the angel, but Anthony suddenly feels pressured to tell  _ somebody _ what he’d done. Even if that somebody is a demon.

“I gaveitothem.” He mutters, scowling out into the desert landscape, turning his face from the demon’s.

“Pardon?”

“I gave it to  _ them _ .” Anthony hisses, whirling to face the demon. Stolas blinks. 

“You what?” His eyes are wide--wider than they already were, anyway--and he’s got the beginnings of a small grin.

“Well, what else was I supposed to do?” The angel all but yells, gesturing wildly in the direction Adam and Eve had gone towards. “She’s pregnant  _ already _ , and it gets cold in the desert, you know, not to mention that the least you could do for two beings who just learned they’re naked is to  _ give them some clothes _ .” He takes a deep breath, ignores the slightly awed expression on Stolas’s face, and continues, “I mean, what sort of angel would I even be if I didn’t help out the only two humans around, responsible for the downfall of humanity or otherwise. Honestly--fig leaves? Come on. Barely covered anything up.” 

“Huh.” The demon says in response, eyebrows raised slightly. “Well.” He looks towards the sky, which has been getting darker by the minute despite the early time, and cants his head to the side. “Fair enough, then.” The angel nods in agreement. The following silence is interrupted by a crack of thunder, accompanied shortly by a flash of light in the now pitch dark sky. 

Then, a drop.

Funny enough, the first drop of rainwater to ever hit the Earth does not, in fact, hit the Earth. It instead lands on a demon, who sucks in sharply at the shocking sting of it. The next lands on the angel, who lets out an exaggerated yelp despite not actually being stung. Another drop hits the ground, then, and about a thousand more, all over the desert landscape, very quickly, the way rain normally does. Then the demon is splashed again, and he jumps with the pain of it. 

“Stop overreacting.” Says the angel, who’s currently pretending he didn’t have a very overdramatic reaction himself. 

“It  _ hurts _ .” Snaps the demon, who then holds his arm out for the angel to see. Sure enough, there’s a nasty burn right where the second drop hit. “It doesn’t hurt you?” He asks, suddenly studying Anthony carefully. 

“No,” says the angel. “Maybe it’s ‘cus you’re a demon?”

“Maybe.” Says the demon. “Quite possibly, actually. Ow!” Another drop had hit him, this time landing in his white hair. Anthony wonders if he’s simply imagining the thin line of smoke that rises from the wound. “I’ve got to get back underground, don’t I?” Stolas says, sounding absolutely wretched. Anthony bites his lip and studies the demon for a moment. He can take a wild guess that Hell isn’t all that nice a place to be. 

“Right, then,” He says, sighing and trying to sound determined all at once. “Here you go.” He lifts a giant, white wing, and gestures for the demon to get under. At first, Stolas just stares. “Well? Unless you want to go back to Hell, which I’m assuming you don’t, I suggest…”

“Right, right.” And the demon shuffles over and stands under the wing. And all around them, the first drops of Holy Water fall from Heaven, their sole target under the wing of his enemy.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This work is now officially part of a series! The second part is up now.


End file.
